The ability to control and be self aware of your behaviour is essential to setting up and achieving your goals. If you read the last article, you know that habits dictate many of the things we do throughout our day and play a big role in the success of achieving our goals, but habits are changeable. With an understanding of willpower, mindfulness, and self monitoring, you’ll have a higher chance of building the habits to achieve your goals.
Willpower or self control is often said to be a finite resource, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It looks more like willpower is similar to an emotion in the sense that you don’t run out of it like you don’t run out of joy or sadness. It can fluctuate depending on how you are feeling or your motivation towards your goal. Self-control might even be genetic. It’s unclear if you can train willpower, but your self-control does seem to improve as you age. The takeaway is that willpower is unreliable, but you will have to tap into some self-control over your goals timeline until you build your goal promoting habits.
Mindfulness is one way to ensure you are aware of the activities you’re doing, which is essential for habit building and goal achievement. Being mindful and in the moment can help improve your sense of self-control. By being focused on your task, you rely less on current habitual behaviour. This will allow you to build new habits because building habits requires some level of behaviour control and self awareness. Being mindful can help you identify behaviours and what triggers those behaviours so that you’re able to make the changes you’re looking for. This means you pay attention to what is going on, how you feel inside and out, and how you react, without self judgment.
Mindfulness is a skill that must be practiced. A good way to start is to take 5-10 minutes, sit in a silent room, focus on your breathing, and how the air feels moving across your lips. Another way is to go for a 10 minute walk. Here you again focus on your breathing, but also focus on the details of the environment around you, and how the outdoor air feels against your skin. Some people find being more self aware creates a freeing feeling in the sense that it allows them to realize that the current moment doesn’t control their life and they can make different choices.
Being self aware of the things you do will go a long way in setting yourself up for success in whatever goal you choose.